Chapter 65: Please wake up, baby
Mara still hadn’t woken up. Machines beeped rhythmically around her, the sterile scent of antiseptics heavy in the air. Her body remained still, bruises dark against her pale skin. Outside, Steve and Stefan spoke to the doctors, their voices low and tense.
Ethan knew this was his only chance.
Dressed in a stolen white coat, a surgical mask obscuring half his face, he slipped past the nurses, his hands clenched into fists inside his pockets. Each step toward her room felt like a countdown to disaster. If he got caught, Steve and Stefan would tear him apart.
Inside, his breath hitched. Seeing Mara so motionless, so fragile, shattered something in him. He shut the door behind him, locking it.
He fell to his knees beside her bed, gripping her cold fingers. "Mara... please," his voice cracked. "I swear—I’ll do whatever you want. Just wake up. Yell at me, hate me, leave me, I don’t care. Just open your eyes."
He pressed his forehead to her hand, his body shaking. "I failed you. I should have protected you, and now..." He choked on his own words, unable to finish.
A noise outside made his blood run cold.
The brothers.
Ethan’s pulse hammered. Shadows moved under the door. A hand gripped the knob. He scrambled to his feet, slipping behind the curtain just as the door creaked open.
Steve and Stefan stepped in, scanning the room.
"I swear I heard something," Steve muttered, eyes narrowing at the locked door.